Managing Sustainable Consumption: Is It a Problem or Panacea?

Abstract

With the growing concern pertaining to the problems related to environmental issues, sustainable consumption became the central research priority in recent years. Sustainable consumption is being consistently associated with green and ethical consumerism which advocates for wise and careful consumption as well as efficient use of goods and services. It goes beyond the environmental concern by ensuring and managing the existing resources in order to meet the current need without jeopardizing the need of the future generation. Clearly, it calls for a paradigm shift from the existing extravagant consumption pattern to a more future oriented eco-friendly and eco-concerned consumption. By considering such importance, the present study attempts to shed some light on problems and prospects related to adopting sustainable consumption behaviour among consumers. Furthermore, the sustainable consumption construct is defined holistically in order to highlight the depth and breadth of the construct. This study utilized scientific way of reviewing literature as the means to gather required information. Literature pertaining to sustainable consumption is analysed, compared and synthesized to fulfil the research objective. In a nutshell, the paper presents an overview of sustainable consumption concepts, its problems and prospects in order to advance the knowledge among academicians and practitioners. It is expected that, this study will motivate future researchers to conduct more research in this field.